GRID PhD Study Plans

Compulsory Courses

2440601 Development Theory and Practice: Survey of social science theories relevant for understanding development problems in different historical and geographical contexts particularly in East Asia, the theoretical and methodological concerns of the “interlocking problem” between theory and practice in development, and the positive contributions of East Asian experience in illuminating the specificity of Euro-centric and positivist development; understanding the thought behind the existing development strategies and approaches, liberalism, Marxism, postmodernism, alternative development ideas.﻿

2440603 The Politics of Public Policy: Key concepts of public policy and structure and dynamics of public policy processes; analysis of cases drawn from various policy areas of development, using a number of analytic approaches to critically discuss the process of formulation, implementation, and evaluation; understanding political dimensions and multiple roles the various actors in the policy process; the role of non-state actors, collective actions of social and political movements, interest and pressure groups, civil society organizations, and people’s participation in political and social change.

2440602 Globalization and Development in Asia and the Pacific: Examination of globalization, its socio-economic consequences, and their implications for state power and governance; focusing on the relationship between politics and economy and the interplay of domestic societies and transnational and international forces, opportunities and tensions arising from increasing cross-border transactions and spillovers, differences within and among countries, the autonomy of governments, change the functions of the state, international governance based on the principle of nation-state sovereignty; analysis of globalization and limits to politics, and impacts on the nature of governance.

2440604 Research Methods in Development Studies: Research methods and techniques, both quantitative and qualitative, currently used and abused in development studies; inferential statistical techniques, social surveys, participant observation, interviewing, and the analysis of documents and census and historical data; examining the process of defining researchable development problems, and analyzing when, where, and why certain quantitative and qualitative methods may be appropriate for exploring particular substantive research problems; enabling students to conduct their own research projects as well as to evaluate the quality of research reports and findings by others from a methodological point of view.

2440605 Democratization Communication and Development: Focusing on the role of communication in the political and developmental process of modern democracies, and especially on the way that political, community leaders and ordinary citizens interact within the realm of networked communications; Shows how technological and regulatory changes altered the stakes for key groups concerned with democracy and development and how these groups have adjusted to these changes.

2440607 Development Project Management: As an adaptive and learning processes from development theory to practice; principles and techniques of management, budgeting, finance, and planning; finding problems and objective of development project including feasibility study, assessment the social and environmental impacts, and development project evaluation.

2440609 Human Rights and Gender Problems in the Asia and Pacific: Application of theories of gender and human rights to contemporary ethical and social issues arising from “development”; exploring specific and controversial topics in the areas of poverty, social justice, individual and group rights, administration of justice, living standards, work, bio-ethics and genetics, environment, sexual and racial equality, child labour, mental health, illness, human and social security, energy, corruption, Asian value, cultural diversity; linking these specific and practical areas into gender and human rights questions relevant to the experiences of East and Southeast Asia.

2440611 Selected Topics in Development and Economy: Exploring selected issues in economic management in developing countries; experience from one or more countries used as case studies; economic reforms, structural adjustment, hunger and famine, etc.; political aspects of economic policy formulation and implementation.

2440615 Development Practicum: An opportunity for practical applicants of previously studied development theories, conceptual framework and methodologies, including problem analysis and need assessment, project development and innovation, assessment and evaluation, and problem solving activities; working with development organizations for a short period of time on a mutual agreed subject.

2440617 Innovation for Inclusive Development in Southeast Asia: New ways of thinking about poverty and its alleviation in Southeast Asia; principles, policy planning, technology and innovative methods for inclusive development; work collaboration between students and organizations as guidelines for effective solution to problems related to poverty.

2440621 Food Security: Studying the issue of food security and the role of food production in development; development challenges that require interventions in areas such as tackling poverty, hunger, malnutrition and sustainable natural resource management; study of factors such as good governance, strategic food reserves, and market access that relate to accessibility, affordability, availability and sustainability of food security; case studies and policy context, in-depth analysis, simulation exercises and interactive debates on ensuring food security and mitigating risks.

2440623 Disaster and Crisis Management: Understanding disaster and its complexity; conventional disaster (floods, tsunamis, earthquakes), emerging threats (climate change-related, infectious disease) and new types of contingencies; Analyzing threats and involving agencies in order to manage crisis before, during and after disaster.

2023510 Vulnerability Science for Sustainable Development Planning: Potential changes in future environment condition and their implications on major systems and sectors; future risk and coping capacity to threat from impact of environmental change; defining vulnerability of systems and/or sectors under context of environmental change; components of vulnerability, sensitivity, exposure and coping capacity to environmental risk; using proxy indicators to identify and measure vulnerability of systems and/or sectors; assessing vulnerability to future environmental change; vulnerability indexing; multi-level and multiple agents to social vulnerability to environmental change.

2440606 Conflict Resolution: Understanding conflicts from the post cold war to the increasingly globalized society, focusing particularly on conflicts between the state and the people in the development process; analysis of conflicts as an important step to resolutions including evaluation of roots causes, dynamics, impacts and consequences of conflicts, the relationship between development and conflicts will be examined with an emphasis on the role of globalization in shaping the nature of conflicts and resolutions; observation of the use of violence in conflict processes and exploration of various possibilities of non-violent approach to conflict resolutions including mediation, negotiation, and mechanisms in democratic decision-making process.

2440608 Environmental Politics and Policy: Environmental policy as a complex and constantly evolving area of public policy; examining major concepts used to define contemporary environmental policy with the aim to understand developments in this field at the state, national, and international levels; focusing on how these concepts apply to certain environmental issues with particular attention to the political dimension of environmental policy formulation and implementation; developing the analytical skills needed to deal with a wide range of policy situations concerning the environment.

2440610 Migration as a Development Issue: Critical framework of economic and sociological approaches to international migration policies; the nature of flows and patterns of population movements in the region and major types of mobility, as well as, policy issues in international migration and their implications for regional economic, social and political stability and development.

2440614 Seminar in Development Problems: An in-depth examination into specific development issues based on students’ research interests

2440616 Critical Issues in Development Studies: Contemporary fundamental development problems as well as new emerging social phenomena: intellectual property rights, debt crisis, poverty, development assistance, bio-diversity, and new form of risk societies.

2440618 Urban Development and Water Resource Management: Main characteristics of various issues and dimension of the effects of urban development and water resource management; the link between the urban and water systems during the time of speedy urban development and changes world, effective guidelines of collaborating with communications for solutions to the problems.

2440622 Social Risk, Risk Management and Public Policy: A comprehensive understanding of social risks and social crisis and other related issues; social and cultural dimension of risks, politics of risk and actors involvement in risk management; social risk and public policy making, policy implementation, policy change and organizational change in public sector.

2440624 Selected Topics in Development and Environment: Critical issues in development and environment; the relationships between ecosystem and economic system, socio-cultural aspects of biodiversity, political dimensions of sustainable development, political dimension of sustainable development, political ecology and green movements, varieties of environmentalism and postecologist politics in the age of globalization; focusing on new theoretical directions of environmental sociology, ecological economics and philosophical discourses on ecologism and eco-postmodernism.

Graduation Requirements

2440826 Dissertation (Plan 2.1) 36 Credits

2440828 Dissertation (Plan 1.1) 48 Credits

2440894 Doctoral Dissertation Seminar S/U

2440897 Qualifying Examination S/U

Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in International Development Studies (MAIDS-GRID)